November 2014
Watching the sunlight on my bedroom wall this morning, the quarter-light window had just been opened, and I could see the image of warm air from the bedroom cascading out of the window into the cold frosty air outside. Curiously, this can only be seen via the image cast onto the opposite wall, but was invisible when looking at the window itself. The sunlight was diffracting at different angles through the window and illustrating the differential viscosity of the two airs as they mixed. I closed the window, and it stopped immediately. Thanks to the excellent double glazing. This is an indication of how global warming is happening. We burn fossil gas (or oil) which heats water to heat our houses. If the heated air escapes it heats the world outside. So by using carbon in the gas that was laid down 150 million years ago. This global warming is causing ice to melt in the arctic that did not used to melt. It is causing insects and the birds that eat them to move further north and higher up mountains. It is causing deserts to get larger and ocean currents to change. Tropical coral is dying due to carbonic acid in the sea from the carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas). We are all responsible for this, but we and our governments have got to try to slow this trend or our children and grandchildren will inherit a much poorer world.
There was ice on my car this morning, the first time this autumn. However the sun was strong enough to cause sunlight roofs to generate steam, and to look like the houses were on fire. The first few days of October were like the last days of summer. However, on the 4th of October the jet stream moved to the south of the British Isles and brought welcome rain to the desiccated soils of Sussex. By the time you read this, most of October will have passed. It was October that brought the “hurricane” of 1987 and the devastating floods of 2000. I wonder what will happen this year? One thing that we can predict about climate change is that the consequences will be unpredictable.
Most of the leaves are still on the trees, and butterflies were still flying during early October. The berry crop this year is phenomenal, with holly, hawthorn, rowan, sloe and other plum species producing huge amounts of fruit. It has been said that this is a harbinger of hard weather to come – we shall see.